Magnetic cards are handy to carry and are widely used. The magnetic card has a magnetic recording layer formed on a desired region of the surface of a substrate having an appropriate thickness.
Magnetically recorded information such as a record of use and a balance account (remainder), etc. cannot be seen in the magnetic card and therefore, the remainder was roughly indicated by punched holes and the like in the pre-paid magnetic card. However, since the precise remainder is not indicated, cash or another pre-paid magnetic card must be supplied when the remainder is insufficient. In order to avoid such a situation, it is required to print the record of use, the remainder and the like.
Conventionally, printing is generally performed on the surface of a magnetic card opposite to the magnetic recording layer by a wire dot printing head through a pressure sensitive ribbon, by a thermal printing head through a heat sensitive ink ribbon or by a thermal printing head to a heat sensitive recording layer formed on the card surface. However, a desired design is generally formed on the surface of the magnetic card opposite to the magnetic recording layer and a wide area for the above printing is not desirable in terms of the above design.
Conventionally, printing is performed on the side of the magnetic recording layer of the magnetic card in some cases and in such cases the magnetic recording layer is partially formed on the substrate in one area of the card and printing is performed on the other area. Therefore, it is impossible to make both the magnetic recording area and the printing area sufficiently large.
Recently, a larger amount of information is being recorded in the magnetic cards and therefore, it is preferable that the magnetic recording area be large and the printing area be as large as possible.
On the other hand, there has arisen a problem of wrongful use of the magnetic card, such as forgery, alteration and the like, and therefore, it is important to improve the security of the magnetic card.